They’ve spent years tweaking the nose of the RIAA, the MPAA… any company that dared to have a lawyer send them a takedown notice. But now, four smarmy Swedish piracy advocates who founded the world’s largest Bittorrent tracker might finally have the grins wiped off their faces: the founders of the Pirate Bay have been found guilty in a Swedish court of law and now face a year of jail time each and $3.6 million dollars in fines.

According to Judge Tomas Norström: “The crime has been committed in a commercial and organized form.”

Needless to say, the Pirate Bay founders plan to appeal, and the decision will likely be locked up for years until it reaches Sweden’s Supreme Court. But that’s not stopping them from cracking wise about the decision.

Commenting on the fact that the verdict was leaked before the official announcement, Sunde laughed: “Really, it’s a bit LOL. It used to be only movies, now even verdicts are out before the official release.”

He followed: “It’s so bizarre that we were convicted at all and it’s even more bizarre that we were [convicted] as a team. The court said we were organised. I can’t get Gottfrid out of bed in the morning. If you’re going to convict us, convict us of disorganised crime.”

No matter what happens in the appeals process, this won’t be the end of The Pirate Bay. They are well distributed offshore to guarantee that the site can continue to function even if it is found illegal in Sweden. But it’s certainly another big blow to organized piracy, destined to set the Pirate Bay founders up as martyrs. One thing’s for sure, though: as long as people can get things for free, piracy will remain undeterrable for long.